A NEW COMEDY OF ERRORS - OH WHAT A LUVVIE WAR !

As the season of cultural prizes (Booker, Turner etc) comes around again, along with the Party Conferences, it is no surprise to me that the theatre of politics (as distinct from political drama of the kind now on at the National Theatre) remains firmly centre stage.

Enter right : General Sir Richard Dannatt, Constable of the Tower of London, former head of the British Army, and future Tory Peer.

Enter left : Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling who - "out of the loop" as they say in spin - misheard details of Sir Richard's forthcoming peerage in a television interview.

Grayling thought the General was to be honoured by the present Government. The fact is, of course, that there is really very little difference between Conservative and New Labour policy on military strategy.

However, Grayling is very lucky his kind aren't still sent to the Tower for such faux pas, notwithstanding that the likes of the General still wield too much power and influence.

For, let's face it, the upper strata of the British military and defence establishment are as much to blame as the present government for current problems in Afghanistan, except that they are proving rather better in the PR war at home than our politicians.

A SENSE OF HUMOUR LOST AND REGAINED ?

The actor and theatre critic Michael Billington laments the apparent demise of classic stage comedy in yesterday's Guardian newspaper. Notwithstanding endless repeats of the likes of "Dad's Army" on television - about which I'm not complaining incidentally - I do wonder whether this is part of a wider sense of humour failure amongst the English people. Political correctness no doubt has played a role. However, there is, I think, a bigger problem. There seems to be a tendency, at least in some of the circles I frequent - particularly bureaucratic, and including "cultural administration" - for people to take comments seriously when these are made partly in jest, and, indeed, to take themselves very seriously indeed.

One of the most effective area regeneration practitioners I have come across in my career - a former director for development at the Government Office for London - was ever alert to a sense of humor failure and, I seem to remember, chastised me on at least once occasion for such shortcomings. I hope that, in recent years, some of these earlier failings have been outgrown, and I have continued to develop my sense of humour, even if this is not always readily appreciated by others, including some "arty" types who, as Janet Street Porter might have said, can be so "f...ing boring !" anyway.

However, ins spite of these cultural and wider social trends, I would suggest that British politics and politicians have provided more genuine comedy in recent years, and hence the great success of satirical shows like Bremner, Bird and Fortune, the stand-up comedy scene. These have, in turn sharpened the comic instincts and observation of many people "out there". Thus I find there is often still plenty of fun to be derived from daily life in general, even if this is lacking in certain cultural quarters. Moreover, the advent of a mass media by the people (as distinct from for) on the Internet has opened up opportunities for user-generated content as never before, so we no longer need, thankfully, to rely upon the cultural establishment for this.

http://janetrocco.wordpress.com/ & http://janetrocco.blogspot.com/

PHYSICIANS HEAL THYSELVES !

Having been quite unwell over the Summer myself - with an illness for which Swine Flu seems to have been in part the catalyst - I have some rare sympathy for Gordon Brown, if reports of his need for pain killers and anti-depressants are true, and, indeed, it they are not. For I also happen to disapprove of the over-prescribing of legal drugs, of which the recent sad death of Michael Jackson is a cautionary tale.

Therefore, notwithstanding my considerable discomfort, I was actually glad to have a taste of my own medicine when refused drugs on the grounds that these might make the condition worse. I am now largely recovered, and, I have to say, the Pantomime of the New Labour Conference seems to be just what the doctor should have ordered to cheer me up !

Enter the gloriously camp Peter Mandelson with his description of Conservative Party Leader David Cameron as a "flibbertigibbet" ("A silly, scatterbrained, or garrulous person" for those of you who didn't know). What a wonderfully appropriate term for the Pantomime Dame himself : aka former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Might I suggest that "Flibbertigibbet" would be an excellent name for Mr Prescott's much-hailed blog !

Returning to serious matters, I strongly suspect that 12 years of New Labour Misrule has also been a contributory factor in my own recent disposition. Therefore, I'm going to suggest to Mr Brown and his colleagues that the well-being of us all - socially inclusive, that is - should improve once they leave office. Physicians Heal Thyselves & Things Can Only Get Better !

SOME RAIL GOOD NEWS FROM WOOLWICH

Those of us who attended the Thames Gateway Bridge Planning Inquiry between 2005-6 will remember that the London Borough of Greenwich, who had been a leading opponent of an earlier version of this project, made much of its importance to the regeneration of Woolwich.

Incidentally, if this long running inquiry of nearly a year's duration had taken place in Woolwich, rather than Charlton Athletic Football Club, the economy of that town, and birthplace of the famous Arsenal FC, might well have benefited.

However, the Planning Inspector recommended against the Thames Gateway Bridge in 2007, and the new Chairman of Transport for London Mayor Boris Johnson scrapped the scheme last year, notwithstanding continuing efforts by the likes of Greenwich Council to revive it.

Now it has been announced that TfL has a joint venture partner for two rail transport related commercial development projects in Woolwich, and that planning applications for these are anticipated next year.

My view has always been that the regeneration benefits of rail investment for Woolwich town centre and the Royal Arsenal areas are much more significant than any potential contribution of a road-based river crossing which has the major environmental objections of the TGB.

TAKING US ALL TO THE CLEANERS

Jonathon Porrit's departure from Chair of the Government's Sustainable Development Commission has generated a good deal of green rancour on the part of the great man. Newspapers report a fall-out with the prime mover in green slime himself, Lord Mandelson.

However, the fact that this Government prefers the nuclear option to renewables should surely come as no surprise to someone as intelligent as Sir Jonathon. After all, the Prime Minister's own expenses showed he shared a cleaner with his brother, who he is top PR man for the industry.

The Problem of Resource Misallocation

Since the publication of my previous post, there has been an ongoing argument amongst British Government ministers, politicians of other parties and senior figures in the Armed Services about whether this country's front line soldiers in Afghanistan are adequately resourced. In fact, the problem is more likely to be one of misallocated resources : for as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman - and someone with whom I rarely agree - has pointed out, Britain's "defence" expenditure is the second largest in the world, presumably after the United States, in real terms.

This problem of resource misallocation is , I would suggest, as much a contemporary "British Disease" as lack of productivity was in earlier times, and, indeed, it may be argued that the two are closely allied. Take, for instance, "a little local difficulty", to quote former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, with which I have been wrestling in recent monthss.

I have been concerned for some time about the state of Worcester's iconic Foregate Street Railway bridge , which passes above a busy thoroughfare. It has been pointed out to me that basic lack of maintenance of this heritage-listed Victorian iron bridge is causing structural damage. As a consequence, I often visually inspect said structure when passing underneath. Last week, I noticed that a bracket attached to a horizontal metal beam was broken and the beam had started to sag. I drew this problem to the attention of staff at the adjoining railway station; and bracket and beam have since been secured with a (very high tech !) piece of wire. This is just as well because a bus stop is located immediately below.

Needless to say there are various stakeholders involved in the future of Foregate Street Railway Bridge : namely Network Rail (who own the structure) together with Worcestershire County Council, who have responsibility for sub-regional integrated transport planning. The lesser players are train operating company London Midland, who run Foregate Street Station, and the City Council, who are the local planning authority and responsible for heritage conservation. I think it's fair to say that these secondary stakeholders, who are most directly affected by the state of the bridge, would very much like to see this structure and the station regenerated.

By contrast, the main obstacles to such regeneration appear to be the infrastructure owner, Network Rail, and, in particular, Worcestershire County Council. The latter has for some years run a concerted campaign to have a strategic rail parkway station constructed to the south east of the current Worcester boundary, and takes little interest interest in the City's two existing railway stations, of which Foregate Street is one. The other, Shrub Hill, was placed on the English Heritage At Risk Register last year, but subsequent investment by the Railway Heritage Trust (part of Network Rail) has brought some respite for that station.

So what is Network Rail doing about Foregate Street Railway Bridge and Station ? I think it's a testimony to the apparent disinterest hitherto of this organisation that a sign on the wall immediately below the structure informs passers-by to contact - in the event of a problem -RailTrack, the deceased private sector company from which Network Rail took over ownership and operation of Britain's railway infrastructure in 2002. As far as I can make out, Network Rail is a sort of quango which means that it operates much of the time along mysterious lines. As regular media coverage also testifies, the company appears to have a strong preference - shared, incidentally, by Worcestershire County Council - for grand prestige projects which distract it from smaller, but nevertheless essential, resource allocations.

An all-too-familiar story, I suspect !

British Foreign Policy

Having been personally grounded for some time - an experience I highly recommend to jet setters and other high fliers - I'm conscious that the downside of this may be a point of view which is insufficiently internationalist, so today I want to reflect on Britain's foreign policy.

The death of British Armed Service Men and Women in Afghanistan is a tragedy. Leaving aside the rationale for their presence in the country, Britain must recompense and resource them adequately whilst they are there. This is not presently the case.

However, the experience of other military campaigns in that country - and notably of the former Soviet Union in the 1980s - suggests that the situation in Afghanistan will continue to be extremely difficult for NATO forces.

A basic issue, which seems to un/under-recognised by Western Governments is the sheer numbers of young men willing to fight for the Taliban and similar tribal/religious causes. In short, this is a war involving "the many" on "the other side".

Therefore, it is only when the citizens of conflict zones themselves take up arms against the perpetrators of tribal and religious violence - as happened recently in Pakistan - that there is any real prospect of "winning the war".

For most Western leaders and technocrats - military and civilian - old-fashioned and prolonged conflict "on foreign ground" - and very difficult ground in the case of Afghanistan - is, I suspect, still alien territory.

The challenge for British Foreign Policy on this, and other issues, is, I would suggest, to find its feet again. Understanding the demographics of conflict zones, including the role of very large, and increasing, numbers of un/under-employed young men is an area worthy of greater policy research.

However, please do not pretend that the so-called "Beautiful Game (ie football) can solve the problems of those countries where former Western foreign policy (notably of Britain and Russia during earlier colonial regimes) was known as the "Great Game".

A New Breed of Climate Change Protester ?

Whilst the President is Away
The Turtles will Delay....

With the G8's latest pronouncements on climate change just made, has a new breed of protester revealed their dissatisfaction with the latest proposals ?

From pa.press.net : Turtle invasion delays flights

A runway at New York's Kennedy Airport had to be shut down after 78 turtles emerged from a nearby bay and crawled onto the tarmac.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said ground crews rounded up the wayward reptiles in about 35 minutes and deposited them back in the water, farther from airport property.

The shutdown disrupted flight schedules, with delays climbing to more than an hour.

My Search for Enlightenment is Well Rewarded

Whilst separately researching sustainable construction and earth-based spirituality (as reflected in the historic environment), I came upon a fusion of the two subjects in The Arch Druid Report http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ @ Energy Bulletin http://www.energybulletin.net/

My researches thus rewarded in this Zen-like enlightenment, I can heartily recommend both these sites.

Need "To Shrink" the State of Britain.

On 26 June, I reflected on the United States government policy of "City Shrinking" and noted that our former Deputy Prime Minister was something of a convert to this way of thinking, in the context of some old Northern industrial areas over here. I also noted that Mr Prescott acknowledged the need for a "Shrink" (ie psychological counsellor) himself with respect to an eating disorder.

Today, I want to reflect again on these two meanings of "shrink" (verb and noun), this time with regard to the state of Britain.

Yesterday, Deborah Orr, writing in The Independent newspaper, recommended that the state needed to be significantly, but also selectively, reduced in size, a view with which I concur.

However, I would also suggest that our "State", like Mr Prescott, also needs a Shrink. The lengthy reading lists for the public British Broadcasting Corporation's "Headroom Campaign", intended to help people deal with "depression" and make them happier are a case in point : for amongst these lists, I would suggest, are a number of volumes likely to have precisely the opposite effect on most people. But perhaps "misery" is essential to state/media control.

RE-BUILDING BRITAIN'S FUTURE

An article in today's Financial Times refers to "...corporate oligarchies, poor governance and a lack of focus on productivity, innovation and global competitiveness".

The article was not, however, referring to major parts of the British economy and public services - although it might have been - but to "countries in Latin America and elsewhere" unable to rise "to the ranks of the developed nations" due to the above problems. However, we in the UK should pay heed to these and related issues.

Thus whilst some of measures announced by the British Government under the umbrella of "Building Britain's Future", including a re-allocation of funds withing the Homes and Communities Agency to enable the construction of more "social" housing, are to be welcomed, present and future administrations must fully acknowledge underlying structural problems.

The founding Chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, Sir Stuart Lipton - himself a highly successful property developer - has been one of the most perceptive observers of the strengths and, equally important, structural weaknesses of the British house-building and construction sectors.

These structural weaknesses have been thrown into relief by the current economic cycle and need to be rectified as a matter of urgency in the interests of "Building Britain's Future". However, there is little indication as yet that either the present Government or the leadership of the other main political parties is up to this task.

Problem of House-building Advocacy Gravy Train

In my post of 4 June on the need for some new enlightenment on housing issues, I referred to the ineffectiveness of the government-funded house-building advocacy sector and the need for this particular gravy train to be shunted into the sidings.

News that former housing minister Nick Raynsford MP earns a comfortable £148 000 on top of his parliamentary salary (and expenses) "from six private sector posts - mostly connected to housing" in today's Metro newspaper is the other side of this particular coin, of course.

THE TRAIN TO STOKE-ON-TRENT.....

In the light of recent posts (see below), this is the real and metaphorical journey that I would recommend to British planning policy makers, and, for that matter, cultural commentators.

Please see also :
http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com & http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com on related themes.

America's Shrinking Cities & Unsustainable Settlements

The United States, following in the tradition of Britain, has been a globaliser of the dubious enterprise, long before the latest sub-prime mortgage fiasco wreaked havoc on the world's financial markets and plunged international economies into a truly global recession.

Thus I listened with some alarm to an item on BBC Radio 4 this morning about "Shrinking America's Cities", a "plan", I fear, which will find new enthusiasts in this country and elsewhere.

It is well known that many older industrial cities in the United States have experienced a massive flight of people both to suburban areas, and to other parts of the country. This flight, incidentally, has been largely, but by no means exclusively, of white middle class people to more desirable neighbourhoods and states, or so they thought.

In fact, the flight has brought unsustainable population growth to precisely those parts of the United States most vulnerable to natural disasters and, therefore, climate change, such as California and Florida. Moreover, the State of California now has its own economic woes comparable to those of the so-called "Rust Belt".

It is the cities of this "Rust Belt", mainly to the north and east of the country, which are the main targets for the latest "Shrinking Plan", notwithstanding that many are well-situated and have good basic infrastructure : unlike many of the apparently desirable suburbs and new settlements of Florida, for instance.

So what does shrinking actually entail ?: essentially knocking down abandoned homes, retail centres and former employment areas and not replacing these with new development; or "rationalising the physical layout of the city", according to one exponent of the plan.

It should come as no surprise, of course, that an earlier recruit to the "Shrinking City Plan" - and who has himself subsequently revealed a need for the services of a "Shrink" (ie psychological counsellor) with regard to a personal eating disorder - was none other than former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott*.

This brings me in turn to the subject of food, and why urban abandonment** should not be encouraged by policy makers, particularly in our rather smaller country than the United States : excessive suburbanisation and new settlement growth generally consume agricultural land, if not natural areas, which may well be required to sustain future populations.

* Some readers may feel that I've been unfair in highlighting Mr Prescott's condition. However, I would suggest that daft ideas are always waiting to seed themselves in the political psyche, and this should serve as warning to the next generation of politicians Over Here and, indeed, Over There.

Moreover, the spatial distribution of populations within countries and internationally, along with food production and consumption, will be amongst the most important issues facing nation states and the global community in the present century.

** Except where environmental factors make this necessary.

The New Road to Milton Keynes.....

I returned again yesterday to my reading of John Brannigan's* excellent book on "Literature in England, 1945-2000", sub-titled "Orwell to the Present" (well not quite the present, the book was published in 2003).

Nevertheless, Brannigan's choice of post-war English literary subjects is remarkably prescient. By way of illustration, early on he quotes from Richard Goodwin's poem "Return to England" which refers to none other than :

"the headline bankers, the spinners of captions,
the millionaires -"

This sounds rather familiar ! However, it is on the opening of the later chapter entitled "English Journeys" that I want to focus today.

In this, Brannigan returns to "the summer of 1983" when the novelist "Beryl Bainbridge joined a BBC television crew in a journey around England" :

"Bainbridge retraced the journey undertaken by J B Priestley fifty years earlier....'English Journey, or The Road to Milton Keynes' pays homage to Priestley, and, as its sub-title suggests, also to Orwell's 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (1937)".

Eventually arriving at Milton Keynes, Bainbridge finds :

"....'a cathedral dedicated to the worship of the credit card, a place where people could come and pay their respects to the consumer society'"

She also finds : "...it's housing estates empty, its shopping arcades derelict, and an architectural planner who tells her that 'no one had foreseen a recession and unemployment.'"

Once again, this sounds all too familiar : please see below my post of yesterday.


* I have also referred to this work @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/ in a post of 3 June 2009.

Housing : From Growth Hotspot to Negative Equity

Yesterday's report in the Financial Times based on data released by credit agency FitchRatings made interesting reading. The top 10 cities and postcodes with the highest proportion of loans in negative equity (by % number of borrowers) was something of a revelation. As the article pointed out :

"The range of locations showing either a high percentage of borrowers in negative equity or a high proportion of loans under water is striking. In central Birmingham, 31.2% of borrowers, representing 37.4 % of loans by value, are in negative equity, while the countryside around Cambridge, where house prices rose sharply in recent years, has also suffered badly".

However, whilst house price falls in major cities such as Birmingham and Manchester - Salford Quays also has a high proportion of loans in negative equity - significantly reflect unsustainable levels of apartment-building, the situation in the East of England's "growth triangle" of Cambridge, Peterborough and Northampton is more surprising.

For it is in fact Northampton which is currently the UK's epicentre of negative equity, according to FitchRatings. All the more important, therefore, for housing policy-makers and planners to remind themselves - as memories are surprisingly short - that this part of England has been the focus for the development of "affordable housing" for so-called "Sustainable Communities".

SPECULATION, SPECULATION, SPECULATION

Although it started out with the mantra "Education, Education, Education", and now offers the prospect of "Regulation, Regulation, Regulation", it is "Speculation, Speculation, Speculation" which has defined not only New Labour's time in government, but leadership of the Party itself.

Thus New Labour has presided over a period of unparalleled speculation in the UK economy, notably in the property and financial sectors, to the extent that even leading speculators such as hedge fund managers have suggested the country needs to refocus it's economy back to "making things" : to which advice should be added, "that employ British labour". It is precisely these real needs that should determine the future leadership of the Labour Party.

The question is who could fulfil this role : not, in my view - and present incumbent aside - Alan Johnson (or "Corporal Johnson" as a Staffordshire Labour Councillor recently called him), David Milliband, Ed Balls (Mr & Mrs) or Harriet Harman. That leaves some space for speculation.

UK Euro Elections - A Failure of Regional Policy

Having declared my vote as "Green" in both the County Council and European Parliament Elections, I shall now reflect upon the outcome of the latter.

First of all, though, I have to confess that whilst I voted "Green" pretty much without hesitation in the local elections, and will probably do so again in the general, the long ballot paper for the Euro elections caught me contemplating other parties. Yes, I too considered the option of voting for UKIP, the English Democrats, and another party represented by Dave Nellist (See - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Nellist)

Why ? Because, like many people, I view the European Union - notwithstanding the fact that it does some excellent work, on the environment and planning, for instance - and its over-expensed politicians and bloated bureaucrats, with some suspicion. Yes, I too, like the Labour Party, have to confess to something of a political split-personality.

Returning to "That Party", for whom I have not only voted but also been a member (until the election of Tony Blair as leader, that is), and for whom the outcome of the Euro Elections is an unmitigated disaster, I have to say that "We were Warned !", but the election of 2 British National Party MEPS still came as something of a shock !

A shock but not a surprise ! For the fact is that there are significant parts of the Nation (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), and sections of their populations, who are, in effect, in a "State" of managed decline. For sadly, much of UK regional policy - most particularly in England - is, to use the words of former Europe Minister Caroline Flint, a "window dressing".

Thus whilst it is the "Greens" who have displaced Labour in the "Growth" areas of the Southern England, it is the BNP who have done the same in areas of "Decline", typically the old industrial heartlands of the North of England. The result is that both parties now have two English MEPS.

In Scotland, for whom ownership of "The Land" (see below) has always been a key (perhaps "the key") issue, the Scottish National Party has fared rather better....than its banking sector

Euro-Election Results also @ http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/

THE PROBLEM OF LAND BANKING

Whilst the problems of Iceland's Landesbanki* are in the news once again, it is the problem of land banking - see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Banking - which I want to focus on here.

Land speculation is as much a challenge for regulators - if not more so - than other forms of financial speculation.

It is time for regulatory authorities in the UK, and elsewhere, to get to grips with the negative contribution of speculative land banking to dysfunctional property markets.

Until there is a proper understanding of this, housing issues of the kind referred to in my previous post cannot be resolved.

At the present time, UK government policies continue to encourage excessive speculation, and, therefore, exacerbate the very problems they seek to tackle.

See also my blog @ http://smartlimits2growth.wordpress.com/

* Landesbanki now own West Ham Football Club

Housing - Some New Elightenment Needed

The New Labour Government - and I blame the centralists and the localists equally for this - has created an enormous house-building advocacy sector, which has achieved remarkably little "on the ground" as the following article illustrates :

"Millennium Communities scheme set to fall far short of goals
Jamie Carpenter, Regen.net, 2 June 2009

A government programme to construct 6,000 environmentally-friendly homes in seven new communities between 1997 and 2010 has so far succeeded in building fewer than 2,000 homes, ministers have admitted.

Figures published in a written parliamentary answer by housing minister Margaret Beckett show that the Millennium Communities initiative has delivered 1,626 new homes.

The Greenwich Millennium Village in London was the first development to be announced under the scheme in 1997. The figures show that nearly 1,100 homes have been built on the site.

But only 14 homes have been completed at the Oakgrove Millennium Village at Milton Keynes and no homes have been constructed at the Hastings Millennium Community, spanning an area of 72ha across three sites in East Sussex, Beckett said.

In New Islington in Manchester, 179 homes have been constructed under the scheme, while 172 homes have been constructed at the Allerton Bywater Millennium Village near Leeds, the figures show.

At the South Lynn Millennium Community in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 109 homes have been built.

In 2007, the then housing minister Yvette Cooper revealed that public expenditure related to the Millennium Communities programme amounted to £131.6 million."

I have to say that all this comes as no surprise to me at all. The state-funded house-building advocacy sector is, I would suggest, a gravy train which has plunged well off the rails of common sense and the sooner someone shunts it into the sidings, the better !

On Re-Naming the She-Shanty

Travelling back to Worcester from Birmingham on the train the other week, I fell into a conversation with two gentlemen, who reminded me a little of a couple of Bird and Fortune characters. After discussing the "Enlightenment Enterprise" of Matthew Boulton*, also called "The Father of Birmingham", our talk turned to contemporary politics.

One of the gentlemen was a lawyer, with an obviously keen interest in politics. He suggested to me that that New Labour has a "split-personality", with the key ideological fight taking place between the "Centralists", led by Ed Balls, and the "Localists", led by Hazel Blears.

Returning to events of this week, and my post of yesterday, I wonder whether the "Nancy Lee" (see below) should be re-named the "Hazel Blears" or

On reflection, perhaps the ship,
After She who steers,
Should be re-named,
the "Hazel Blears",
"Rocking the Boat"**
With Her own waves :
"YouTube if you want to....***
....The Lady's not for turning"****
But then it all ends in tears !*****

* There is an excellent programme of events in Birmingham over the Summer to commemorate the bi-centenary of Boulton's death
* Hazel wore a brooch emblazoned with these words after her resignation from government
*** As Hazel said of Gordon and his gang : those of us who hail from the North West of England, never under-estimate the power of the Manchester Mafia to influence national events
**** As Margaret Thatcher told the men of her day
***** Hazel's subsequent recantation to the Manchester Evening News

Please see also http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ - Gender Politics & New Labour's Undressing

"The Capting" faces his "Ukulele Music"

Last October, in a post entitled "Deconstructing "Captain" Gordon Brown's Rhetoric", I quoted some lines from the sea shanty "Nancy Lee" :

"I sing you a tale of the Nancy Lee
A ship that got shipwrecked at sea
The bravest man was Captain Brown
Who played his ukulele as the ship went down

........All the crew were in despair
Some rushed here and others rushed there
But the Captain sat in the captain's chair
And he played the ukulele as the ship went down."

Today's national newspapers all suggest that it is time for the Prime Minister to face the music.

However, I want to reflect once again on the subject of my blog of yesterday, Tom Paulin's book "Minotaur : Poetry and the Nation State".

The concluding chapter of this book focuses on the work of the contemporary British poet, Peter Reading, and, in particular, his poem "Ukulele Music" and the figure of "The Capting". The poem poses the following question :

And shall it, now, be counted
as ye dignified defiance
in us towards our fateful
merciless element,
or gull naivete,
cousin to recklessness,
that, e'en in pitching Gulpward,
our salt kind brings forth chanteys ?

Paulin, in turn, offers the following reflection on this passage :

".... these lines carry a patriotic impulse as well as performing a kind of ritual absolution. In them we witness the the isolated, scarred and diminished soul of a great seafaring nation asking forgiveness after centuries of reckless imperialism. It's a hard request to answer and it perhaps betrays a sentimental softness for the imperial past*. We may be grateful, though, that the nation has found such a prolific laureate in Peter Reading. The imaginative risks he takes in confronting the state have a witty desperation and a strange but essentially confident poignancy that speaks in that phrase "our salt kind". It reminds me of Churchill's remark in May 1940 that the nation was as " sound as salt in the sea"".**

* A past unfortunately re-kindled in the imperialist foreign policy of the Blair Government and a UK banking system which swelled to leviathan proportions under "Capting" Brown's watch.

** The subjects of "soundness" (legal) and "SEA" (in this case "strategic environmental assessment") are tackled at my other blog : http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/

The Minotaur dances with Big Brother

I've just started reading Tom Paulin's 1992 book "Minotaur : Poetry and the Nation State", which explores the nature of government through the symbolism of the "bull-man" and other poetic imagery, from John Milton to Peter Reading. The Minotaur is widely regarded as a metaphor of political oppression, a theme which Tom Paulin - whose hinterland lies in Northern Ireland, and who has a deep interest in the Israeli-Palestinian relations - is keen to expound. Incidentally, he (Paulin) might make a very good Oxford Professor of Poetry.

On a lighter note, I very much enjoyed a BBC Radio 4 "From Fact to Fiction" programme the other day, which dexterously wove together medieval animal tale and modern political fable in the story of a "Parliament of Rooks". Here the common rooks dispatch their political brethren, led by a David Cameron-like twitterer, whose nests that have grown overly-well feathered, from the rookery. The piece owed its inspiration to Chaucer, one of my favourite poets, whose work dances along as merrily to the music of the spheres as it does to lower vibrations.

Returning to the present, it seems to me that we (the citizens of Merry England) are now witness to an uneasy dance between The Minotaur (in an overly-powerful, but deeply wounded body politic) and a media-induced frenzy of "Big Brother" "vote-'em-out-of-the-house" popularism. Let's hope this doesn't lead us back to another kind of "Big Brother" : the Orwellian kind. I have to say that the prospect of Comrade Balls taking over the reins of Chancellor of the Exchequer makes me deeply uneasy, indeed rather queasy.

THE BIG ISSUE FOR SMALL BUSINESS.....

....IS PROMPT PAYMENT OF MONEY DUE.

Notwithstanding all the fine words from Government about prompt payment - never mind loans - to small business from large public agencies, this remains - along with slow payment by large private sector companies (and particularly those formerly in public ownership) - The Number 1 problem for smaller businesses and the self-employed.

It's just a shame that this issue doesn't receive the same media attention as MPs expenses. Could it be that media organisations are also slow to pay freelancers etc and don't want to draw attention to an issue which might embarrass them : much like MPs and their expenses, in fact.

Just what is the News "Cost" of MPs Expences ?

The current media frenzy around MPs's expenses is similar to the indignation about bankers's bonuses. Yes, these are important issues, but are they worthy of so much press attention ?

There are other important matters at home and abroad just now : loss of more jobs in Britain and the lives of more British soldiers, for instance. I thought Nigel Lawson's suggestion that it was time for the British army to start withdrawing from Afghanistan, because this is a foreign conflict Britain can no longer afford, an interesting one : certainly of more interest to me than the banalities of MPs's expense claims.

As to the "cost" of MPs, my own experience is that some are good value for money and others aren't. Some are good at dealing with constituency matters, others with wider issues. I would cite Joan Ruddock, my MP when I lived in London, and now a government minister at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as someone who is good at both. On the other hand, I don't rate highly my local Worcestershire MPs, Labour or Conservative.

With regard to Messers* Foster and Luff MP, details of their expenses are posted on the windows of the empty Woolworth store in the centre of Worcester : now there's a real story.

* There is an old country saying : "To hold parry with the hare (or fox), and to hunt with the hounds" ie to be something of a double-dealer. On environmental issues, I would suggest that this saying applies equally to these gentlemen; notwithstanding that "Foxy Foster" was instrumental in the hunting ban : another political and media distraction, from the preamble to the Iraqi war, for instance. Let's hope the next government brings fewer fatal distractions.

Asian Noire : "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga

When "Renaissance Man" Michael Portillo became Chairman of the Man Booker Prize committee last year, I had expectations that the 2008 winning novel might just be rather more interesting than the usual stable of winners, and in the "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga I have not been disappointed.

The fact that the choice of this first-time novel clearly upset the sensibilities of a few white middle class journalists of "The Guardian" genre only added to its appeal. For whilst India may be "The Great Brown* Hope" of many in the West, I remind convinced that a combination of democracy and good quality urban planning are the high watermarks of civilisation and development, and, arguably, this combination can only be found in parts of Northern and Western Europe : I stress parts !

Returning to "The White Tiger", whilst this is very much a "fusion" novel, I don't think that its author should be called an "outsider" in his own country (as one Guardian reviewer did), as he was born in Madras and currently lives in Mumbai (or Bombay as they still call it there). However, Mr Adiga - still only in his mid-thirties - is undoubtedly a man of this world (he has travelled widely) and of literature.

Thus "The White Tiger" owes its bite not just to an extraordinarily vivid account of modern India, but also to a much wider literary heritage. Nevertheless, whilst Aravind Adiga has been compared to both the Victorian Charles Dickens and the modern American writer Tom Wolfe, we should also look to Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground" for both narrative style and points of reference.

Indeed, a memorable episode involves the narrator - and driver/servant- of an Americanised Asian living in Delhi, taking his boss and a corrupt Indian government official to a blond Russian prostitute who speaks a modest amount of Hindi and looks like the Hollywood actress Kim Bassinger. Later, when the narrator seeks out a similar "blond" for himself, he discovers she is a Ukrainian with dyed hair whose circumstances are even more desperate than his own.

Although the hero ultimately triumphs over adversity - through a brutal and criminal act - and sets up a successful enterprise in Bangalore on the back of the city's world-renowned technology/call-centre "cluster", both he and we are left to wonder whether democracy really has a future in India, or whether the country's profound socio-economic failings have sunk it into the irredeemable terriory of pre-Soviet Russia, or China before the coming of communism.

The following passage from towards the end of the book may remind readers of "news management" and international pre-occupations closer to home, including those of our former and current prime ministers :

"The health minister today announced a plan to eliminate malaria in Bangalore by the end of the year...

....In other news, the chief minister of state announced a plan to eliminate malnutrition in Bangalore in six months. He declared that there would be not one hungry child in the city by the end of the year..."

However, the narrator addresses himself not to the Good and Great of the West, but throughout his story, to "His Excellency Wen Jiabao, The Premier's Office, Beijing, Capital of the Freedom-Loving Nation of China", or "Our Great Yellow* Hope".

*The term's "brown" and "yelllow" are used here as they by the narrator of "The White Tiger".

Tackling the Legacy of Phony Tony

I found Michael Parkinson's attack on Jade Goody shortly after her death not only in rather bad taste, but demonstrating a callous lack of concern for people close to her. Although I didn't follow Jade's story closely - and I'm proud to say have never watched an episode of Big Brother - both are ultimately the creations of media people like Mr Parkinson, for whom I've never had much time anyway. Indeed, I can't recollect a memorable incident involving him, save for his recent comments on Ms Goody which did bring him a lot of media attention.

In fact, "Parky" has always struck me as something of a "Phony". I'm using this word as it first came to my attention in the film "American Beauty", when the central character describes her friend's mother as "such as phony", and promptly sets about disrupting the domestic scene. From my recollection, the "Mom" works in the real estate business and conducts her family life in what might be described as "Scenes from a Show Home". In short, she is a shallow but also smart (in the sense recently used by Michelle Obama ie intelligent and elegant) and plausible lady.

Now whilst none of these descriptions could fairly be applied to Jade Goody, they could with the exception of "lady" and, possibly, "intelligent" be applied to Tony Blair, with Cherie providing the missing qualities. However, Mr Blair does seem to share some qualities with Jade Goody, namely a certain opportunism, ability to create significant problems in international relations, love of celebrity status and its rewards, and religious consolation in distress, all of which qualities he shares with his wife, who, over time, appears to have aspired to be more and more like Jade.

So before venting their spleen on the sadly deceased Ms Goody, I would suggest that people like Michael Parkinson look more closely at the political and media castes in this country. I use the term caste rather than just class, because many people in Britain now feel that the barriers to social mobility go beyond those that existed before the advent of New Labour. Moreover, unlike Michelle Obama, many people over here also suspect that "being smart" may not get them very far, but "being phony" might just get them somewhere, even if it's over there.

Learning from the Lessons of Unpaid Labour

All independent professionals should reflect seriously upon the latest downfall from grace of Derek Draper, who has apparently lost his unpaid advisory role with New Labour. Providing one's services free of charge to certain types of client can have serious consequences for one's professional reputation if things go wrong, and relationships turn sour. The "People Professions", of which Mr Draper is a member - as psychotherapist and political "spin doctor" - are, of course, particularly prone to relationship problems. However, all of us should adopt a cautionary approach to the provision of free advice, as should those who seek to procure it.

A Message from the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to Gordon Bown

Dear Prime Minister

Just in case you were preoccupied with the matter of "certain emails" over the Easter period, I would like to remind you of your predecessor's new venture, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, from whose website the following message is taken :

"The Easter story tells of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and reminds Christians of the eternal life, the new life, that is offered to all who believe in Him. We celebrate the freedom from past failures which Christ offers us and the hope which his resurrection holds out.

I trust that this festival of new life can be a symbol of hope to others too - Christians and non- Christians alike. It reminds us that out of darkness can come light, out of death can come new and better life, out of defeat can come victory..."

...and spin doctors can not only be reborn as psychotherapists, as in the case of Derek Draper, but then return to spin and combine therapeutic practice with running a prurient political website.

We do indeed live in an Age of Charlatans and Fake Healers !

Einstein on "Unmanageable Complexity"

For all those who haved encountered "IT", I like this article from "Einstein's Corner" back in 2004 :

www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=4515

For those who can't remember the 1970s.....

For those who can't remember the 1970s, although they were there (and for those that weren't), this was also a time of global recession. Please consult the following link : http://nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/economy/28charts.html

My guess is that the 2000's recession (as it is now being called) is a compound of early 1990s and 1970s recessionary ingredients, including the inevitable squeeze on public finances, but with rather more uncertainty about causal factors, including "media" and, therefore, remedial action.

With regard to our own country, some may remember that the 1970s was a time of the so-called "British Disease" : a general malaise of which one measure was low economic productivity. This, of course, begs the question : is there a "New British Disease" ?

Many people, I suspect, would agree that there is a "New British Disease" which might be summed up thus : "I/We have a (personal, domestic, social etc) problem, therefore I/We am/are...". The question is do we need another Mrs Thatcher to put ourselves together again ?

G20 Gathering : Corporate "Away Day" or School Trip ?

Watching the recent G20 gathering in the media, I was reminded of the so-called "Away Days" enjoyed by the corporate sector, when I counted myself amongst its ranks in the early 1990s. There's nothing like a couple of days' rest from the problems of real world to set things right ! Some of the photos, however, reminded me more of my school trips in the 1970s. So is this recession going to be more 1970s than 1990s, I wonder ?

Property & Money : No FT. No Comment ?

Around the time of the last UK recession in the early 1990s, the then property correspondent of the Financial Times, Michael Brett, published a book entitled "Property and Money". Amongst other valuable advice, this recommended that one should only believe about 10% of what property developers said. Many individuals and organisations are now no doubt wishing that not only they but governments around the world, and not least our own, had followed this guidance.

Moving forward to the present day, I was surprised to see the contents of a press release from a consulting group concerned with "Nimbyism" published without, apparently, any journalistic comment in the main section of last weekend's FT. It should be clear by now that most people have adopted Michael Brett's view of property developers and extended this to a range of other development protagonists, not least our present government.

In this week's FT, much comment is given over to "The Future of Capitalism" series, which started with an article by Martin Wolf on Monday quoting former US President Ronald Reagan : (I paraphrase) Question : "What are the nine most frightening words in the English language ?" Answer : "I'm a government official and I'm here to help". Now this is advice the property development sector, and notably, house-builders should have heeded.

For, as yesterday's free paper the "Metro" stated, again based on a press release (this time from the National Housing Federation) : "The housebuilding industry is lurching towards bust - with a real possibility that the number of new homes built in 2009/10 could slump to the lowest level since the 1920s". Some may remember that our former Chancellor of the Exchequer and now Prime Minister only a few years ago proclaimed "No more boom and bust".

No comment !

Lord Mandelson and the New Labour Market

The UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has recently made some disparaging comments on British companies (unable to run enterprises like the Royal Mail) and workers (unwilling to perform jobs which are done by foreign labour). Whilst there may be some grains of truth in these sentiments, the problems are ones in whose creation successive New Labour governments have played a pivotal role.

For instance, the cronyism for which New Labour is famous has become increasingly ingrained in British management culture, reducing the commercial and industrial gene-bank which Lord Mandelson has identified as deficient in the skills to run the Royal Mail. Cronyism has always been a significant feature of British business and public institutions, and the governments of Blair and Brown have re-inforced this structural problem, which has made no small contribution to the current UK banking crisis.

With regard to the apparently increasing reluctance of British workers to undertake certain types of employment, the fact is that the culture of New Labour (and of this country) stigmatises many essential jobs as unworthy for aspirational indigen(t/e)s. However, this is not the full story. Many employers prefer foreign workers for a host of reasons, including, in some cases, their inability to speak English, and, therefore, articulate health, safety and other genuine concerns.

Many of us would welcome a labour market based far more on genuine merit, however grand or, quite simply, essential the positions involved. Many of us believed that the election of a New Labour Government in 1997 would bring this much hoped for meritocracy. How wrong we were to expect the architects of New Labour like Lord Peter Mandelson to deliver this, or very much else of any real worth for that matter.

Please "Shut Up" the Upper Miserable Class

There's some people whose personal lives I'd very much like to hear less about, and, collectively, I'd label these the "Upper Miserable Class". A good example of this is the Myerson family (New Labour supporters and second home in the same seaside town as Gordon and Sarah Brown, if you get my drift). Personally, I don't much like Jonathan Myerson's writing, which has far too much air time on BBC Radio 4 for a start, and the mere mention of his name switches the programme off for me. Thankfully, I'd never been forced fed anything by his wife, Julie, until lately that is. Now the story of the couple's addict son and family life is all over the media, as Julie Myerson has written a book about her errant offspring. Said youth has responded by describing his mother to a newspaper journalist as "insane". For all I know, this description may - along with his father's tedious tinkerings with public life - hold the key to the family's obvious problems, so please, as far as I'm concerned, "shut up" the lot of them !

Amen in Full : The Second Coming of the Real Economy

The more I think about it, the more Tom Wolfe's 1990s novel "A Man in Full" seems to strike a cord with the real life dramas of our present times. There's the "man in full" himself in the person of fallen financier (and cricket sponsor) Sir Allen Stanford, US President Obama's invocations of the "American Dream", whose shadow side has always been a nightmare for a significant sector of American society, and - let us not forget - Prime Minister Brown's visit to the Pope (by whom I mean the real one and not Catholic convert Tony Blair). Herein lie all the main ingredients of Wolfe's brilliant novel - Mammon, Politics and Religion - albeit these are set in Atlanta, Georgia rather than on the world stage. I can't recommend a better read just now.

Returning to the setting for another of Wolfe's novels, his 1980s "The Bonfire of the Vanities", the news on Wall Street today is not good, as the following press report shows :

"'There's perceived disappointment from the lack of clarity from the Treasury (Department) for what it will do with the financial sector," said Wasif Latif, portfolio managerat USAA Investment Management Co. "That's hitting financials regularly."

Stocks have fallen steadily over the past two weeks as investors lost confidence in multiple Obama administration programs aimed at bolstering the economy. The market's inability to rally signals that investors don't have a sense of when the recession, already 14 months old, will end.

"We're going through a tug of war between optimism and pessimism," Latif said. "When there is a lack of clarity, it becomes more of an emotional or psychological environment. The mood can sway on any given day based on the flow of news coming out.'''

Now it has also to be said that the unfolding dramas of the global banking and finance sector - as well as the unfoldment of the so-called "Real Economy" - are also pretty engrossing, and will one day, I am sure, come in for some "creative treatment" themselves. However, for anyone seriously interested in what the Coming of the Real Economy might mean I would suggest they look not too much further back than the 1970s, which, unlike the 1960s, should be much easier to remember, for those of us who there anyway. The 1970s also saw a global recession, with whose bitter legacy of de-industrialisation* this country and the United States, in particular, still live. Perhaps the Second Coming of the Real Economy will enable us to overcome this.

* An excellent book on this subject is "The Geography of De-Industrialisation", Martin & Rowthorn, Macmillan 1986

What's behind all this "Banker Bashing" ?

Along with big bonuses for the relatively few, the UK banking sector has created many average and, indeed, low-paid jobs. Thus we learn that the majority of Lloyds staff earn between £17-18 000 per year, which suggests that some earn rather less than this, as well as those who earn rather more. We also learn that the average bonus this time around is £1 000. Frankly, if Lloyds staff on the average and lower wages have a bonus, I really don't mind.

Besides, the present frenzy of "Banker Bashing" is, in my view, a useful distraction from the much wider spectrum of responsibility for the present economic crisis. After all, precisely what was the Treasury Select Committee doing several years ago, when there was already plenty of evidence of the "bubble" ? Not a lot, I suggest.

The fact is that a sort of collective delusion - some might say mass hysteria - had gripped (and, in some case, continues to hold) the consciousness, or lack of it, of vast sections of the public, private and, dare I say, voluntary sectors. This collective delusion brought with it the conviction that the boom of recent years could go on, and on, and on, and the belief - bordering on a religious fervour - that the economic bubble was, in fact, not just for real, but for ever.

It was not just the banking and wider financial sector but this Government - and its friends (until recently) in the media, construction/house-building and other "favoured" industries, that "sold" the economic bubble on; and, in particular, political apparats like former government economic adviser (and now doom merchant) Ed Balls, who, incidentally, is not going to apologise.

Blog from 2007 on Snow & Transport

There are some things in life that you can always rely on ! Please also see "Modal Shift is Key issue for West Midlands @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/

Saturday, February 10, 2007 Have Car, Can't Travel : Have Feet, Can

The "snow storms" which have hit the West Midlands, and Worcestershire in particular, in the last couple of days highlight one the core areas of the region's unsustainability : the fact that people's mean travel to work (and other destinations) distances by car are the highest (or amongst the highest) in the country. One reason - probably the main one - for this is that the West Midlands was the last region in the country to encourage a policy of population dispersal from the major urban areas, like Birmingham and its hinterland conurbation. The consequent dispersed pattern of settlement, and associated mobility (travel rather than social !) patterns leads to excessive car dependency. This problem needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency by planners involved in the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy, which is currently subject to public consultation*. So, please, let's "walk the talk" for a change, and also put some real investment into the railways.

*Examination-in Public of Proposed Phase 2 Revision now underway (January-June 2009)

The following thoughtful comment was also received in February 2007 :

Julian Dobson said...
I agree that planners have a lot to answer for, but I think the issue runs deeper than that. You need to look at housing markets and why some areas - often the ones that are least accessible by public transport - command higher values than others; and why even when perfectly adequate public transport is available, people would rather swan around in 4x4s than demean themselves by getting on a bus.Having said that, living in Sheffield, which was once Bus City, I found four buses stranded on the hill outside my house last Friday night. Meanwhile the 4x4s were whizzing past. I, of course, was walking.More investment in railways? Absolutely. But that won't change a culture that identifies wellbeing with the car you drive (and that isn't just a male thing any more).

The Best & Worst of BBC Radio

Over the past couple of week's I've heard some excellent, even groundbreaking, programmes on BBC Radio 4. Last week's "Crossing Continents" broadcast recordings made by a former member of the Mexican Mafia from various US penitentiaries. This was not the sort of programme I would normally listen to, but I found the content totally engrossing. On Tuesday of this week, was the final installment of Claudia Hammond's series on mental health services in Britain : State of Mind. I've listened on and off to this series which has been very good indeed. Similarly, both "The Investigation" of last week (on piracy off the coast of Somalia) and yesterday's programme on waste management (the "rubbish" rather than "The Sopranos" kind !) in the UK was extremely interesting. This is BBC Radio at its best.

So why, oh why has the quality of broadcasting on Radio 4's flagship "Today Programme" so deteriorated recently ? Admittedly, it's not all bad, but the tendency to descend into tittle-tattle about fellow members of the media "profession" is ever present. More and more, it is the BBC itself which is the subject of "The News", breaking the first rule of journalism - or so I was led to believe - that journalists (and other media types) themselves should never become the "Main Story". What's gone wrong, I wonder ?

The Problem of Social Pedagogy

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a "pedagogue" is "a dull, formal, or pedantic teacher".

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that a current pet project of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, headed by Ed Balls (in case anyone should forget !) is the creation of a cadre of "high status social pedagogues", a "new" professional group somewhere between that of social worker and teacher.

That's funny because I thought this was precisely the social position (or should I say class) occupied by New Labour itself !

I shall be exploring the subject of "Social Pedagogy" further at my "De-Constructing the New Labour Project blog : http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/

It might be remembered that Mr Ball's wife, Yvette Cooper, - still Financial Secretary to the Treasury ? - was until recently Minister for Housing, and the important subject of social housing for rent is dealt with @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com/ where I too engage in some social instruction, this time for policy makers.

New EPONA Website

My area regeneration business, EPONA, is currently undergoing some re-development and a new website for epona-land.co.uk will be launched toward the end of March. In the meantime, please send emails to consult@crookbarrow.com. Other contact details remain the same.

Updates on EPONA's work can be found @ http://eponaland.wordpress.com/

Sound Advice from World War 1 German General

Update 12 February

This post may now be read in the context of the story of Sir James Crosby, the former Deputy Chairman of the FSA, who resigned yesterday. I would define a stupid person as someone who disregards potential risks :

Speaking today of the current banking crisis, Lord Adair Turner of the UK Financial Services Authority referred on BBC Radio 4 to : "An intellectual failure to understand that we were building a system which had huge systemic failures..."

Might I suggest that he and other business and political "generals" reflect on this apocryphal story from World War 1.

The German army was apparently becoming short of officer recruits. Meeting to to discuss this problem, one general described 4 categories of potential recruits as follows :

1. Intelligent and energetic
2. Intelligent and lazy
3. Stupid and lazy
4. Stupid and energetic

He added that the first 2 categories had been exhausted, and category 3 was also depleted. Nevertheless, his advice was still that, on no account, should the army recruit officers from category 4. What happened next I do not know.

However, herein, I warrant, lies something of the answer to the cause of much of our present day economic woes. I strongly suspect that I am not alone in encountering a fair proportion of "stupid and energetic" people in positions of authority.

The Moscow School of Management

Like most professionals, I imagine, past the first flush of youth - and I'm well past mine ! - I contemplate from time to time the prospect of embarking upon a major personal education or training project. However, this prospect soon recedes as I could never be persuaded to take out a large loan for this purpose, and now it is very unlikely that such a loan would available anyway.
Nevertheless, spotting an advertisement in The Financial Times the other day for "The Moscow School of Management", my dream of an educational enterprise was momentarily revived when the thought crossed my mind that I might secure sponsorship from some wealthy Russian oligarch for this purpose. Although they to, I understand, are falling upon hard times.

I have, in the meantime, consoled myself by writing a post entitled "How too much 'Construction' led to "Meltdown'" at my Social Limits to Growth/De-constructing the New Labour Project Blog : http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com/ in an attempt to expand not only my own intellectual horizons, but those of a few other people too !

Does Cameron have the "Ken" to run Britain ?

Some 9 months ago (in a post of 18 April 2008, to be precise), I asked myself : Does Boris have the "Ken" to run London ? I can now answer this question in the affirmative. Mayor of London Boris Johnson's actions (which count stronger than words in politics) on transport and police issues - always key matters for Londoners - demonstrate him to be the right man for the job.

The question now arises : Does David Cameron have the "Ken" to run Britain ? His appointment of Ken Clarke to the Conservative front benches, as Shadow Business Spokesman, yesterday is a positive development in national politics.

For my part - and with due respect to the inauguration of Barack Obama as United State President today - I want Britain to be more independent of America in the future. This inevitably raises questions about our relationship with Europe and the vexed question of UK membership of the Euro, about which, like, apparently, the majority of British citizens, I still feel some ambivalence.

PS In an earlier version of this post, I mistakenly used "election" instead of "inauguration" : a Freudian slip, perhaps anticipating a not-so-distant future event over here.

Fewer Regional Development Agencies would be Better

The return of East Midlands MP, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ken Clarke to the Conservative front benches, to shadow Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, is welcome news.
To adapt some recent words of Mandelson : common sense is a quality lacking in the New Labour Government gene bank (and a few other sorts of banks beside !). Ken Clarke has plenty of common sense. Moreover, his namesake Ken Livingstone - when "Purple" in 2000 - once expressed the view to me that if Ken Clarke had been leader of the Conservative Party, things might have turned out very differently. Indeed !

One of the most important achievements of the last Conservative administration was to redress the balance of economic power between the regions and London. The new New Labour Government of the late 1990s looked as it they would build upon this success, with the creation of a Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but soon relinquished this ambition in favour of policies - notably housing market-based growth - which have made the UK economy particularly vulnerable to the current banking crisis. Therefore, as Shadow Business Secretary, Ken Clarke must focus on the regeneration of the entire UK economy.

Reducing the number of English Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) outside London from 8 to 4 will, in my view, be an important part of any recovery programme, and I would suggest the following combined/existing RDAs are retained :

• South and East of England (with an HQ in the Thames Gateway)
• Central England (based in Birmingham)
• North of England (based in Leeds, or Manchester)
• South West (current structure retained)

This new RDA configuration should focus on sustainable economic development and regeneration, with dedicated operating units focused on key regional issues, like Regen-WM in the West Midlands. Sub-regional assemblies (ie the present regional ones, which are currently being wound up) should be retained to oversee spatial planning, with a particular remit for environmental sustainability. There is also a need to rationalise government/public sector organisations/quangos etc at the County and local levels. Revitalising democracy outside London should be a core part of this process.

"Change proves true on the day it finished"

Belated Greetings for 2009.

The old Chinese saying that "we live in changing times" certainly applies to the present, and I've been reflecting of late on the above quotation from The Book of Changes or I Ching. This advises us not to confuse the process of change with its outcomes, and also to observe closely the "Tao" (or wisdom) of events, particularly small ones in my experience. In short, it is what actually happens which is important : "Change proves true on the day it is finished".

It's fair to say that Britain's New Labour Government has not engaged with much "Small Thinking". Instead, there has, and continues to be, a strong tendency to confuse "Big Thinking" with intended, positive, and commensurate outcomes. More often than not, of course, the outcomes have been unintended, negative, small and, in some cases, non-existent. However, this being essentially non-reflective, such outcomes tend not to register on the New Labour psyche.

Therefore it behoves the rest of us to observe closely the process of change, particularly if we are engaged in our own small enterprises, whether for profit, social good, or some combination of these. For whilst the changes invoked by this Government have yet to prove true, it is also the case that some changes arising from present economic problems and uncertainties will create opportunities for entrepreneurs and, perhaps, positive social transformation.

My Christmas Message : Behold The Armies of One

If the Festive Spirit seemed lacking in my previous post, I hope that this one might make amends.

Just the other day, I came across an article by the US academic Harold Bloom in the New York Times (http:/www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12bloom.html). In his NYT article, Bloom considers the relevance of Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy to our present day economic problems, and, in particular the concept of "self-reliance".

Now, for my money, if former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher felt that "there is no such thing as society", excluding her own (ie "one of us"), our present one, Gordon Brown, feels that there is no such thing as the individual, excluding himself and his cronies, of course.

This bring me to what seems a central message of "The Christ Story", the importance of individual conscience and action in the face of oppression (military, political, social, cultural, economic etc).

Sharing the same North American tradition as Harold Bloom, the management writer Tom Peters has drawn attention to the importance of the "Army of One" ie the self-reliant individual working within and without organisations , often overcoming the forces of oppression in the process, for some greater societal good.

Good Luck to Them and Seasons Greetings to All !

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven ?

The above quotation is taken from John Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost", which BBC Radio 3 is broadcasting every afternoon this week and next at 5pm. Now here's some real "fear and loathing", to use those well known words of Hunter S Thompson, from Satan's "crew" !

Earlier this year, as it happens, I briefly attended - being short of time and attention span - an exhibition entitled "Citizen Milton" at the Bodleian Library (one of my all time favourite places) in Oxford. Near the start of this exhibition, I was perplexed to find the following quotation from our Prime Minister :

"At the core of British history, the very British ideas of 'active citizenship,' 'good neighbour', civic pride and the public realm." — Gordon Brown, 2007

This may well be true, but what has it got to do with Milton ?, I asked myself : Oxford Establishment cosying up to the Government, perhaps. Then as I listened to "Paradise Lost" yesterday, another thought occurred.

What particularly strikes me about Gordon Brown and his Cabinet is the pride and arrogance of some (not all, admittedly) of its key members, including the Prime Minister, himself. I wonder what "Citizen Milton" would have made of them ?

Postscript 24.12.2008 : If anyone is wondering where God is in my "argument" (to use Milton's word), let them look to Citizen Williams, although the Poet would, I think (had he been alive today) looked more to Citizen Tutu for his inspiration.

"The least accurate but most truthful account..."

So was the writing of Gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson once described : a description which might well provide food for thought over the festive period for those concerned with matters more or less evidence-based.

More Cabaret & Less Strictly Come Dancing Please

Yes, I'm Back ! : Variously inspired by the German Finance Minister attack on Brownite Economics (if such a thing exists !), economist Tim Harford's BBC Radio 4 Programme "More or Less" (check out the website), and Lord Mandelson's aspirations to appear on BBC 1's "Celebrity Come Dancing". However, what I want is more "Welcome to Berlin"* style cabaret with Peter in a starring role, of course !

* The musical's original name

Importance of keeping Leviathan under control

Last week's good news (The Guardian, 6 November) that Transport for London (TfL) is to scrap the ill-advised Thames Gateway Bridge Project - see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/ - should be some consolation for Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, who is today fretting about the costs of London 2012 in the current economic climate.

TfL had originally hoped that the bridge would be in place for the opening of the Games, and it's demise should therefore be welcomed by Government on financial and well as environmental grounds.

Let us hope also that those involved in the promotion of this ill-fated scheme have learnt some lessons, and, namely, the importance of the options process in decision-making on major/mega projects and other enterprises.

This brings me back to "Shock Jocks" George Mathewson and Peter Burt, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland respectively, who yesterday issued a further press regarding their proposal to take temporary management control of HBOS and consider alternative options for the bank :

"A properly recapitalised, properly run and independent HBOS appears to be in the interests of the shareholders, its employees, its customers and all stakeholders, avoiding the dangers of an anti-competitive over-mighty leviathan...".

Government, again, please take note ! Incidentally, I write as one who been involved in the sagas of East London river crossings and a customer of the Halifax (HBOS) for over 20 years.

What did the Scottish Bankers say to the English Banker ?

Please see http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com - I very much like this story from The Press Association. Here are some real "Shock Jocks" for you !

Smart Limits to Growth

In response to my "syndication" of a recent New Scientist editorial ("Time to banish the gods of growth") Derek Wall of http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/ has posted a comment (see below).

I have to say that this is a difficult subject area and my own "takes" on it are explored @

• http://smartlimits2growth.wordpress.com (Smart Limits to Growth) &
• http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com (Social Limits to Growth)

Mr Wall is a key figure in the Green Party. Most intelligent young people plan to vote Green according to a recent survey. Perhaps their votes will lead to the kind of changes Britain and the wider world need.

Election of Barack Obama as US President

Perhaps some new "Glasnost" as "Perestroika" are indeed on their way. The election of Obama as President of the United States is certainly a much-needed victory for people exerting power ie their vote.

The Need for a New Glasnost and Perestroika

"Glasnost" : Truth, Frankness

"If the Russian word 'Perestroika' has easily entered the international lexicon, it is due to more than just interest in what is going on in the Soviet Union. Now the whole world needs restructuring; that is, progressive development, a fundamental change".

Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich

Precisely what transpired between one of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs, the former European Trade Commissioner, and the UK Conservative Shadow Chancellor is today the matter of much media speculation, but this blog has more important matters to address.

For some time, Russian Prime Minister (and former President) Putin and current President Medvedev have re-iterated that : "There are no ideological differences between us" (ie Russia and the West). Meanwhile, Mr Putin describes himself - a former KGB officer and supporter of the Soviet Union - as a "Conservative", whilst Mr Medvedev, a wealthy oligarch, describes himself as a "Liberal".

Does this mean that the Russian Prime Minister would identify himself (ideologically that is) with so-called Worcestershire Conservatives ? There are certainly some Soviet-style bureaucrats amongst the West Midlands regional and local authorities, and other other public bodies, who, I feel, would welcome the kind of strong leadership favoured by Mr Putin.

As for the Russian President's "Liberalism", is this in reality little more than a culture of "Loads of Money". The UK Liberal-Democrats, I seem to remember, secured one of the largest donations to a British political party shortly before the last General Election, only to find that the donor was a crook who subsequently fled the country rather than face a prison sentence.

Under the circumstances, whilst I abhor much of what New Labour represents, neither the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats hold much promise for me just now. What this country (ie Britain) needs is some real "Glasnost" and "Perestroika", and so I'm going to explore these concepts in a wider ideological context with the help of some "friends" @

http://janetrocco.wordpress.com/ (See Tails of 2 Nations)

However, I would like to leave readers of this post to ponder the following quote from Geoffrey Hosking's excellent book "Russia and the Russians" (Penquin 2002). Professor Hosking's notes (pg 580-1) the rise of "informed political movements" in the Soviet Union of the mid-1980s :

"These early initiatives focused on matters of "motherhood and apple pie" : no one could argue that historic buildings, the environment, and nuclear power were issues of legitimate public concern"...

Present day UK national and local governments please take note !

"Time to Banish the God of Growth"

Following the Miliband "Clone" Ed's announcement yesterday* (see below) - in his new role as UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change - I've decided to quote in full the following Editorial from this week's New Scientist magazine, from which this post also takes its title :

"IMAGINE an industry that runs out of raw materials. Companies go bust, workers are laid off, families suffer and associated organisations are thrown into turmoil. Eventually governments are forced to take drastic action. Welcome to global banking, brought to its knees by the interruption of its lifeblood - the flow of cash.

In this case we seem to have been fortunate. In the nick of time, governments released reserves that should with luck get cash circulating again. But what if they hadn't been there? There are no reserves of fish, tropical hardwoods, fresh water or metals such as indium, so what are we going to do when supplies of these vital materials dry up? We live on a planet with finite resources - that's no surprise to anyone - so why do we have an economic system in which all that matters is growth (see "Why our economy is killing the planet and what we can do about it")? More growth means using more resources.

When the human population was counted in millions and resources were sparse, people could simply move to pastures new. But with 9 billion people expected around 2050, moving on is not an option. As politicians reconstruct the global economy, they should take heed. If we are to leave any kind of planet to our children we need an economic system that lets us live within our means."

* New UK targets have been set for green house gas emissions.

False Dawns before The Rise of the Real Economy

Around this time last year, I suggested at a meeting about the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Phase 2 Revisions that local authorities in Worcestershire would not recognise real sustainability (ie environmental) if this was a bus about to knock them over. So with the present New Labour Government, and the real economy : I cannot think of any minister (least of all the "prime") who would recognise this in a similar situation.

Unfortunately, I feel pretty much the same about the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. With regard for the latter, although Vince Cable has been amongst the most reliable commentators on the current financial crisis, as the former chief economist of oil company Shell, I'm still not convinced even he fully grasps the real economy. Meanwhile, the Conservative leadership has floundered somewhat in recent weeks, and, as for Mayor of London Boris Johnson, I would suggest that he has about as much grasp of the real economy at the present time as his predecessor, Ken Livingstone.

So in this rather unpropitious context, I've decided to raise some key issues concerning the real economy, in the hope that these will help others recognise both false dawns and the "real thing". I'm going to do this with reference to :

1. The global financial system/economy
2. UK property market
3. Construction industry
4. Small and medium-sized business
5. The public sectors

Firstly, the global financial system is, I would argue, still far from adjusted to the real economy. Thus we should not put over-much weight on day-to-day adjustments in world stock markets. We should also be skeptical of government propaganda - I'm afraid that's precisely what it is ! - concerning the robustness of our own economy relative to that of other countries. For - surprising although it may seem - the United States economy is, with the exception some sectors such as real estate, better regulated than our own, and the economies of many European nations better placed to withstand a major international recession.

With regard to the UK, residential property values, in particular, are over-priced relative to the real economy, notably actual household incomes. Thus in Worcester, for instance, I anticipate that the value of small apartments could still fall by 30-40%. However, there are likely to be more dramatic declines in the values of such property elsewhere, including Birmingham. This is because one of the "urban myths" perpetuated by the present Government is that there is a burgeoning "class" of upwardly mobile young professional single people and couples, when, in fact, the growth in employment has been in low paid work of the kind more likely to generate households of multiple occupation. Therefore, until such time as there is an honest recognition of the real labour market in Britain, we cannot properly tackle real housing issues, and notably the need for the "re-construction" of the social rented sector.

Moving on to the construction industry - one of the UK's most important sectors - costs here have escalated unsustainably in recent years. Historically, the increasing costs of construction have been a key contributor to the end of the boom cycle in countries such as the UK and United States, and I, would argue, this will increasingly be the case elsewhere in the world. The Mayor of London should not, therefore, call upon national government to "Spend, Spend, Spend" on large-scale construction projects until such time as their costs are adjusted downwards.

Much has been made in recent days of the financial needs of small and medium-sized businesses, not least because these now employ, collectively, more people than large companies. It is unfortunate, therefore, that much of the "growth" amongst such businesses since New Labour came to power has been funded through the same credit boom - or, more accurately, binge - as much consumer spending. As with mortgage lending, it is highly questionable in my view, whether business lending can or should return to the levels of 2007 and earlier, and I think those UK banks who have just been bailed out by the Government will agree with me !

Finally, I would like to look at the public sector, particularly central and local government, health, education and the emergency services, but also the so-called cultural sectors. The point has been made that there are now more people employed in the collective public sectors of the UK than in Hungary before the collapse of communism; and the National Health Service is, I think, the second largest employer in the world after the Chinese army ! It is not surprising, therefore, that the public sector is more important to the economy of many parts of Britain than the private. As with the construction sector - of which it is one of the main clients ! - the cost of Britain's public sector has rocketed in recent years, and the current spending trajectory, including pensions, is, I would suggest, one of the least sustainable areas of the British economy, even for those authorities who do not had their finances "frozen" in Icelandic banks !

So how do I propose to tackle the above issues : in my Blog for the time being, is the answer. However, if someone wants to pay me fair fee, I'd be happy to advise them !

In the meantime, some may feel that in this and my previous posts I've been unfair to our Prime Minister and his Government, or "Brave Captain Brown" and his "Crew". Not so, I say ! It was, after all, former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who compared Gordon Brown to the captain of the Titanic, or as the Chief Leader Writer for The Telegraph put it on 5 August :
"As befits a former ship's steward, John Prescott has a penchant for the nautical metaphor. It's proving a dangerous addiction. His blogpost in which he compared Gordon Brown to the captain of the Titanic was designed to be helpful. I'd hate to see Prezza trying to be unhelpful."
Alternatively, perhaps Mr Prescott, was, on this occasion, simply being honest, and, unwittingly, providing us with an augury of the impact of the real economy, after the false dawns of recovery.

De-constructing Gordon "Captain" Brown's Rhetoric

One the things that particularly riles me about the New Labour Project is the language deployed by its proponents, and I want to focus on Gordon Brown-Speak today. (see also :
http://limits-2-growth.blogspot.com - Decontructing the New Labour Project).

Two of Brown's preferred metaphors (for himself !) are "The Good Father" (of the New Labour Family) and, most recently, "The Ship's Captain" (based, apparently, on a favourite short story by Joseph Conrad) who is steering the British economy through "turbulent times".

With regard to "The Father" metaphor, it is the aphorism "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan" which particularly sums up New Labour's record in office for me. Here is a Government which has called every passing economic success its own, and denied any role in these when they turned out to have a serious downside.

Let's take for instance, the current "favoured" policy of governments buying shares in banks. Now as far as I can make out "The Father" of this approach is United States private investor Warren Buffett (with his recent purchase of shares in Goldman Sachs), and not Gordon Brown.

As it happens, Mr Buffett likes to play his Ukulele, and I'm going to strongly recommend that our Prime Minister takes up this instrument for it brings me nicely on to his other preferred metaphor : "The Ship's Captain".

The only successful British sea-faring prime minister in modern times has to, my knowledge, been the Conservative Sir Edward Heath, who skippered his yacht crew into victory on the world class racing circuit, but, wasn't, by his own admission, much good in the galley. The help of former ship's steward, and later Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott might been useful here !

Returning to Gordon Brown, I'm reminded of the sea-shanty in which "Captain Brown" (yes, really !) played his Ukulele as the ship went down", perhaps after hitting a large iceberg. Here are a couple of verses from "Nancy Lee" :

"I sing you a tale of the Nancy Lee
A ship that got shipwrecked at sea
The bravest man was Captain Brown
Who played his ukulele as the ship went down....

....All the crew were in despair
Some rushed here and others rushed there
But the Captain sat in the captain's chair
And he played the ukulele as the ship went down."

Incidentally, folks who like a good old sea shanty might be interested in "Why I've lately been bound for Botany Bay" at http://the-green-man-project.blogspot.com/

The Tip of Brown's Iceberg.... is Already Melting

Yesterday, BBC Radio 4's "In Business" Programme hosted a special debate on the present world financial crisis. Various eminent professionals took part, but the main discussion was between a leading financier and a well-known economist, with the boss of a major firm of consulting engineers promoting a rather optimistic view of his business in Britain. He looked forward to a large amount of government-generated construction projects. Meanwhile the economist confirmed that there was still a lot of "free" capital in the world, but most of it is in Russia and China. The financier, however, offered a rather bleak outlook for most people.

On reflection, a composite "future" emerged from this discussion, which sounded rather like life in the former Soviet Union, with bureaucrats and technocrats doing rather well for themselves and the rest of society not faring too well at all. Iceland, I note, has already found "a new friend", to quote their prime minister, in Russia. However, if modern Chinese state capitalism is your preferred "business model", I would point you in the direction of George Walden's book, "China : A Wolf in the World ? "; and again remind readers of The Twilight of the God's (see below) wherein the Wolf Skoll eats the sun, recalling Walden's account of air pollution in Beijing.

A New Icelandic Saga - The Twilight of the Banks ?

In the Old Icelandic Sagas, it is the Twilight of the Gods, and the end of the world, which is prophesied, possibly based on a dim collective memory of pre-historic climate change.

The New Icelandic Saga appears to herald the Twilight of the Banks, bringing immediate freezing of the collective finances, including those of British local authorities.

However, given that the collective psyche of local government sometimes seems very dim indeed, the "big freeze" might just be a timely reality cheque.

Complex feuds are central to the Old Icelandic Sagas. In the New Icelandic Saga, this probably means a major legal action against the Icelandic authorities.

Incidentally, Transport for London is amongst the Icelandic investors, which, on a positive note, might mean the end of a certain Thames Gateway Bridge "Saga", for the time being anyway.

The Underworld of European Finance

Now we've all had sight of this, I think we can understand why Gordon Brown has recalled Peter "Mephistopheles" from the nether regions (see below) !

Incidentally, in updating myself on the career of Tina Brown, I find she has recently set up The Daily Beast @ http://www.thedailybeast.com

On Caligula's appointment of his horse as Consul & Peter Mandelson's return to Government

In a 2005 New Statesman book review, Sir Peregrine Worsthorne referred to former New Yorker editor Tina Brown's appointment of an "old friend" to edit "The Talk of the Town" as "only a little less outrageous than Caligula's appointment of his horse as consul". Interestingly, the same edition of the New Statesman notes, in "Trouble in the Ranks", that :

"By the time Margaret Thatcher finished with the Conservative Party, the aristocrats had been banished by free-market zealots who made it unelectable. Peregrine Worsthorne laments the demise of the old-style Tories, who at least served to restrain corporate greed."

The comparison to Caligula's horseresurfaced last weekend, this time with reference to the appointment of Peter (now Lord) Mandelson as Business Secretary by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

However, from my perspective, Caligula's appointment of his horse as consul was probably one of the Roman's more sensible decisions, and so it may be with Gordon Brown's appointment of Peter Mandelson as Business Secretary.

If this appointment has upset Ed Balls (and his wife, Treasury Secretary Yvette Coooper, no doubt); and, for that matter, the Conservative Party, then, as far as I'm concerned, so much the better.

With regard to the Conservatives, I have to say that their Leader David Cameron shrunk in my estimation when, in his closing speech to the party conference, he tied the fortunes of " David Cameron's Conservatives" firmly to the legacy of Thatcherism.

Returning to Peter Mandelson, I would nevertheless suggest that readers consult the Postscipt to my E-Pantomime, Carry on Communities, where the "Lord" appears in the guise of Mephistopheles, and a post of around the same time entitled "Know the Difference between Objectivity and Aspiration" which I have re-produced at : http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com/